Carmack Speaks
In our interview with John Carmack at Quakecon 2011 we talked about hardware trends and how consoles are able to keep up with PCs.
Last week we were in Dallas, Texas covering Quakecon 2011 as well as hosting our very own PC Perspective Hardware Workshop. While we had over 1100 attendees at the event and had a blast judging the case mod contest, one of the highlights of the event is always getting to sit down with John Carmack and pick his brain about topics of interest. We got about 30 minutes of John’s time over the weekend and pestered him with questions about the GPU hardware race, how Intel’s intergrated graphics (and AMD Fusion) fit in the future of PCs, the continuing debate about ray tracing, rasterization, voxels and infinite detail engines, key technologies for PC gamers like multi-display engines and a lot more!
One of our most read articles of all time was our previous interview with Carmack that focused a lot more on the ray tracing and rasterization debate. If you never read that, much of it is still very relevant today and is worth reading over.
This year though John has come full circle on several things including ray tracing, GPGPU workloads and even the advantages that console hardware has over PC gaming hardware.
Note: Due to popular demand, we are going to have a transcript ready (likely tomorrow) as the third and 4th page of this article.
First up on our list of topics was the importance of mathematics in the world of game and game engine design. Carmack stated that though his math background was a bit overstated in some cases he was able to build the engines we all know and love with a basic, applicable knowledge of high school topics such as geometry and calculus. The key is knowing how to apply these things to a problem that you haven’t seen before as opposed to being able to answer a question on a test. Of course, as engines have developed into more and more complicated pieces of software the need for higher level mathematics are required for physical simulations though you can still solve much of the world’s problems (at least in a software sense) by time-slicing and iterating.
The topic of the GPU hardware race came up early in our talk and the response Carmack gave us was pretty interesting. Stating “I don’t worry about the GPU hardware at all, I worry about the drivers” seemed to be a reiterated point. This became very apparent to id Software while developing RAGE where even though the PC had truly an order of magnitude more horsepower than the consoles, it struggled to keep up with the “minimum latency”, get feedback here, update data there, etc and do it all to maintain a 60 Hertz frame rate. DirectX 11 and multi-threaded drivers might have helped things but he still claims that they are far from the solution he envisions: direct surfacing of the memory system. The process of updating a textures on the PC is on the order of “tens of thousands of times slower” than on the Xbox 360 and PS3. AMD did implement a “multi-texture” update specifically for id Tech 5 which should help, but from the interview you can tell that Carmack really does want more done on this topic.
One interesting side effect of this talk – Intel’s integrated graphics actually has impressed Carmack quite a bit and the shared memory address space could potentially fix much of this issue. AMD’s Fusion architecture, seen in the Llano APU and upcoming Trinity design, would also fit into the same mold here. He calls it “almost a forgone conclusion” that eventually this type of architecture is going to be the dominant force. You might remember our discussion of this topic with Josh’s analysis of AMD’s Fusion System Architecture – it would appear that AMD has a potential ally on its side if they are paying attention.
Carmack still thinks the Intel integrated graphics is on feature parity with other integrated options and that people are going to be surprised in the not-too-distant future when the “free” graphics you get with your Intel CPU is good enough to play pretty much any game you want. He admits of course that the software and driver implementations from Intel need a lot of work and he has “high hopes” that with the shared memory potential there Intel will push forward with this “closer to the metal” mentality. There is also the outlet for console developers to more directly develop for integrated graphics than for discrete graphics (as it would be more similar to the console architectures) and games might run faster on integrated than low cost discrete solutions.
Larrabee was discussed as well – and though a couple of years ago it was thought this might be the “sweep” architecture across all the coming generation of consoles, it clearly didn’t meet the performance requirements to be successful yet. Instead, it seems obvious that there are again going to be multiple architectures on the pending console designs and there could be “strong contenders” based around the ARM architecture. But any next-generation console NEEDS to be a 64-bit architecture and with ARM just now integrating 64-bit designs for the first time, it leads us to believe we are a couple of steps away from seeing ARM in your next gaming console.
Carmack does hope that Sony avoids the Cell architecture all together due to the difficulty in development.
I like the summary but, Will
I like the summary but, Will there be a written transcript of the interview?
I can read faster than watch and I can read the articles during sanity breaks at work.
Its rare that I make time for an internet video, but I will try to for this one.
We might try to do that but
We might try to do that but we hadn’t planned on it. The whole idea of video (and then the written summary) was to NOT do a complete and direct transcription.
I think the subject matter is
I think the subject matter is technical enough that you can assume the interested readers are not illiterate 🙂 And yeah, i don’t have time to watch a talking head for 32 minutes when i could read the transcript in 10.
And yet you have time to come
And yet you have time to come on here and post 2x about it, when instead you could have watched the interview with the great illustrative video samples of games and graphic techniques.
On a (crappy) mobile here,
On a (crappy) mobile here, please make a transcript!
Also, making a transcript of anything Carmack says just makes sense 🙂
We get enough requests and
We get enough requests and we’ll probably do it. 🙂
+1 for a transcript.
+1 for a transcript.
We are currently working on
We are currently working on it!
Another +1 for a transcript.
Another +1 for a transcript. Pleeeease?
Thanks, Dr Smokey.
We’ll have sometime tomorrow
We’ll have sometime tomorrow early afternoon, promise.
Here it is:
Here it is: https://pcper.com/reviews/Editorial/John-Carmack-Interview-GPU-Race-Intel-Graphics-Ray-Tracing-Voxels-and-more/Intervi
It’s rare that I leap to
It’s rare that I leap to Sony’s defence, but I feel I should so here. The reason the PS3 doesn’t use full 64 bit addresses is simply because it doesn’t need to. John seems to find the decision strange that they don’t have a >4GiB address space, but given that there’s only 512MiB of memory (plus some extra devices etc), having 8byte pointers would just be a waste of space that could be better used for other stuff.
The first few versions of the PS3 SDK were truly 64bit, but enough developers complained about the waste of space using long pointers that didn’t need to be long that Sony saw sense and fixed it. The 360 similarly has a 64bit processor, but only bothers with a 32bit address space, simply because it’s enough.
Another vote for the
Another vote for the transcript. Besides being faster to read than view, a transcript would allow so much more. A transcript leads to indexing, which leads to searching, which leads to traffic from search engines, and ultimately more traffic on your site as a whole. This provides a much higher value for everyone far beyond the enjoyment and edification of just watching a John Carmack interview.
But anyways, thanks again for the interview. Always great to hear what John has been up to and the state of game development.
Transcript please!
Transcript please!
We do have an editor working
We do have an editor working on it now. We’ll add it as third page on this review today or tomorrow.
Thanks for reading!
Did someone say my name?!
Did someone say my name?!
Indeed, Tim is that lucky
Indeed, Tim is that lucky man.
Ask and you shall receive
Ask and you shall receive (sometimes), the interview transcript:
https://pcper.com/reviews/Editorial/John-Carmack-Interview-GPU-Race-Intel-Graphics-Ray-Tracing-Voxels-and-more/Intervi
Thanks for the transcript,
Thanks for the transcript, Tim!
You’re welcome!
You’re welcome!
(Great summary though, thanks
(Great summary though, thanks for that!)
I for one am blown away by
I for one am blown away by the clarity of the questions and Carmack’s clear replies. You don’t get a proper appreciation for how great an extemporaneous speaker Carmack is in a transcript, although the data density is certainly high enough to make a transcript useful. But I think it is worth the time to just listen to two smart people going at a complex subject.
Well done!
Thanks Paul!
Thanks Paul!
1 TB is not that much
1 TB is not that much anymore.
My PC is busy so I will cut this short 😉 🙂
It sure would be a lot to
It sure would be a lot to DOWNLOAD though, right?
Yeah, their bandwidth costs
Yeah, their bandwidth costs would be astronomical! I suppose they could go the bittorent route and just let their users host it for them, but I doubt they do that 🙁 lol
I love how this interview guy
I love how this interview guy pretends like he knows what Carmack is saying. Dude, I’m about to get a PhD in Neuroscience and I’ve been watching Carmack talk for 10 years, and I barely can follow what he says even with my failed CS degree. I would never be like “OK..sure..cool..right…OK..yeah..Cool..OK…yeah” when talking with the pioneers of my field. And then read some pre-made questions to ask him. OMG dude! Have you even played DOOM? Romero would make you his bitch.
PhD in Neuroscience? That’s
PhD in Neuroscience? That’s cool and all but you know, he isn’t talking about neuroscience. If you managed to fail CS degree, it’s not surprising that you can’t follow Carmack. I could follow most of the stuff he was talking about and who knows what kind of background the interviewer has. He at least had good questions on the subject.
Exactly. There was very
Exactly. There was very little stuff I didn’t understand. After working in the graphics field for 11 years now, I have a pretty good grasp. Could I compete with Carmack in SAYING all of that? Nope. Could I understand most of it? Yup.
Great interview – though I
Great interview – though I dont think Ryan knows what he’s talking about most of the time- check out the nervous nods in slightly the wrong places to simulate understanding.
Remember though, John is supposed to be doing the talking, not Ryan, and it succeeds in that aim.
Oh – previous poster, said same thing. Dont be hard on ryan: its all geeky techy stuff; not understanding is more a function of John’s extreme geekiness than Ryans lack of intelligence. Low level programming knowledge does not equate to god-like wisdom. It’s the guys job & passion, after all.
From what I’ve seen of Rage so far, it looks just like another boring shooter. Totally unexciting. Pioneer or no pioneer back in the day, I’m not that interested in their games.
I thought the interviewer
I thought the interviewer saying “OK” “OK” “Right” “Right” constantly was really annoying.
OK Right
OK Right
Mm hmm…
Mm hmm…
Thanks heaps for the
Thanks heaps for the transcript! I really appreciate your effort.
You’re welcome, I hope it
You’re welcome, I hope it helped!
Ryan, not intending to mean
Ryan, not intending to mean or insulting, but so I might not feel any more of an idiot that I already am, did you really instantaneously get what he was saying? If you did, you are incredibly knowledgeable in this area of expertise. Wish I got half of it. I will listen again, but doubt that will improve my comprehension. Certainly doesn’t take much to get John talking, and I guess in consideration of time constraints, you were regularly saying “OK” and “right” to move him along and get to the next question. Personally, though I really liked the range of questions, I would have been fine listening to him answer one question in the time allowed. Anyway, good job.
You are correct – part of the
You are correct – part of the reason I was saying those things was attempting to find a break point to interject and get some more questions in. Obviously I failed.
Also, as for how much of it I understood, I think I got about 75% as we went – I don’t think I am near the level of many other technical writers out there but having dealt with this for 11 years I picked up quite a bit.
lol, now you know how I feel
lol, now you know how I feel trying to get a word in edgewise with Katy! 😛
I assure you, understanding
I assure you, understanding 75% is quite impressive. As far as knowing as much as other technical writers, you bring a lot more to the table that is more important to what you do.
I really, REALLY want
I really, REALLY want Carmack’s q2 shirt.
Transcript =
Transcript = awesomeness.
Thanks guys 🙂
Good interview and good
Good interview and good diverse (and interesting) questions!
Listening to Carmack is always interesting. Thanks for doing this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oB1eMC9Jdsw&feature=player_embedded#at=77
🙂
This interview is the exact
This interview is the exact opposite of an interview with say Robert Dinero. With him you could bearly get him to say anything other than yes and no to your questions so the time was filled with the interviewer trying to fill the space by talking. Carmack is an interviewers dream. You ask one question and sit back for 20 minutes a let him go. That being said, he is obviously brilliant. Notice for instance he rarely says “um”…. or “right”… or any other things that allow you time to think stuff out, it just flowes out perfectly.
Yeah, he is a talker, that’s
Yeah, he is a talker, that’s for sure! He always has a lot of interesting things to say.
Not to belittle Mr. Carmack
Not to belittle Mr. Carmack in anyway, but most of his interview answers were really at a high-level / project manager style. This is nothing a smooth talking software salesman couldn’t pull off. And for the lack of “um…” or “right…”, all that suggests is that he has confidence and has talked on these topics many times before (probably everyday at id). In fact, give a listen to some very brilliant people like Dr. Robert Shiller (Yale) or Dr. Summers (former president of Harvard) and you’ll find many “um…” and pauses, which appear to be signs of measured speaking and reflection. Mr. Carmack definitely has been a very successful software engineer which is in part due to proper timing (right code for the right market time).
More importantly, we should all be discussing the content of what he said, not the style or the judgement of the man. I found the hybrid ray-tracer (ray casting for only specular reflections in the context of a rasterized pipeline) quite interesting but superficial in presentation. However, the unnecessary ratio analysis of developer time / rasterized based shaders versus developer time / x86 cores (pertaining to the offline raytracing done for textures) not to be completely necessary – at least in the way he presented it (again nothing more than a stock analyst could pull off).
Have anyone seen the CentiLeo
Have anyone seen the CentiLeo GPU ray tracer? They show virtual memory access working very well on consumer GPU, it was presented on Siggraph very impressively. Here are some first news about them http://gpgpu.org/2011/08/04/centileo-out-of-core-ray-tracer